A refrigeration system in a grocery store may include a large number of refrigeration circuits (e.g., display cases and/or walk-in coolers). The refrigeration system may also include a control system to centrally manage the temperature and/or defrost events (e.g., cycles) of the refrigeration circuits.
In previous refrigeration systems, the defrost event schedule for a refrigeration circuit is typically set manually by a user. That is, the user manually (e.g., individually) sets (e.g., enters and configures) each of the defrost events for the circuit in the schedule. Further, in manually setting the defrost event schedule for the circuit, the user may have to account for the defrost event schedules of the other refrigeration circuits of the system. For example, the user may have to set the schedule such that only a certain (e.g., maximum) number of the circuits are concurrently defrosting at any given time. Accordingly, manually setting the defrost event schedule for a refrigeration circuit can be a difficult, time consuming task for the user.
Further, in some refrigeration systems, a group of refrigeration circuits may need to defrost at the same time. Previous refrigeration systems may account for this by manually configuring (e.g., designing and applying) logic elements (e.g., components and linkages) external to the circuits of the group that link the circuits together and synchronize their defrost events. These logic elements may also have to be manually tied to the central controller of the refrigeration system. This manual configuration of these logic elements, however, can be difficult and time consuming.